


Going Home

by ConcentratedMatter



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 12:35:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17662748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConcentratedMatter/pseuds/ConcentratedMatter
Summary: Yeza's perspective on the escape from the goblins as he carries Luke back home.





	Going Home

“...daddy?”

Yeza instinctually drew Luc closer and kissed the boy on the top of his head. His lungs were screaming, his arms burning with the weight of his son. His feet were cold and wet with swamp water and there was a dull ache in his right shoulder where a crossbow bolt had grazed him, his clothes still sticky with blood. But none of it mattered.

“It’s okay, Luc. We’re going home. It’s all going to be fine.” He said, surprised by the ease with which the lie left his lips. It was really no effort at all.

The wild thumping of his heart caused a rhythmic drone in his ears, and he felt he was falling in and out of the waking world, stumbling across tree roots and rocky ground. But never dropping Luc. Never.

He focused on a single point of light in the valley below. All he had to do was focus and maybe it wouldn’t be a lie at all. Everything would be fine if he could just focus.

His body begged him to stop, to rest, to give in, to lie down and give up. It was night still, and the darkness creeped around the edges of his vision. He sometimes thought he saw figures in the shadows, following. Stalking. Waiting for him to fall, to not get back up.

How long had he been going? How many hours? Or had it only just happened? Was it the same night, still? Or was it all a dream?

Or was he dead?

“...mommy?” Luc’s voice filtered through his feverish thoughts like a hot knife plunging into his soul, and he took a surprised, shuddered breath.

Still alive, then.

_Because of her._

\--

_They came to a halt in a meadow, and Veth’s suggestion hung between them like a dangling noose. He was out of breath. Behind them, not too far off, he could hear the hoots and hollers of their tracking party._

He looked at his son, wrapped up in a cloak in Veth’s arms, and then looked at his wife. Her sweaty hair clung to her cheeks, but she had a strange look on her face. His heart hammered in his chest, but his eyes were pulled towards the trail they had come from, the sounds of the chase growing ever closer. He bit his lip and reached inside his vest and pulled out a vial, and stepped forward -

“Don’t.” Veth whispered, and suddenly her hand was on his hand, and Luc was in his arms, and he tried to give him back, but Veth had pried away the vial, and he opened his mouth to argue, and -

“Don’t.” She said, and her hands were in his hair now, her forehead touching his as her breath fogged against his glasses. Her eyes were a brilliant brown, shimmering as they caught the starlight, searching his for confirmation. He hesitated.

“But-”

She cut off his words with a kiss to his lips. Not soft, but wild and primal; a desperate last search for contact. He closed his eyes and kissed her back, the world spinning away until it was just them and the empty darkness.

It lasted an eternity, and no time at all.

She finally broke away, and her eyes were glimmering for a different reason now. She looked down at their son, wrapped warm in his arms. The boy’s eyes were open but unfocused, his hair clammy with fever. She reached out and stroked his head and then kissed him, too. A shower of kisses, her hands trembling as she muttered soft reassurances in the boy’s ear. Luc mumbled something unintelligible and then closed his eyes, tired from all the commotion.

She looked up.

“Do it for him, Yez.” She said, and a tear rolled down her cheek. His world shattered into a million fragments. She moved backwards, away from them, and their eyes locked across space and time; years of friendship, of love and heartbreak, arguments and late evenings and early mornings and good night kisses, and games and kindness and surprises, and gifts and trinkets and spilled sherry’s, and broken dishes and dirty boots on clean carpets, and mistakes and accidents and wrapped bandages on burned fingers, and tired sighs and playful winks and knowing looks, and silly jokes that made them laugh and laugh and laugh.

She smiled one last time.

_“I love you.”_

-

_The words hung in the air like big, pink letters and he was stunned into silence. As the moment dragged on, she cast him a worried look. He could see the doubt in her face as he searched for his reply, but the words got stuck in his throat and she beat him to it._

_“I… I didn’t… if…” She started, and abruptly sat up from the grass where they had been lying side by side. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”_

_He shook his head vigorously and also also sat up, placing both of his hands on her soft, sun-tanned shoulders. She was in a green summer dress, and their feet were still dangling in the refreshingly cold water of the Eisfus river as they enjoyed the last sun of the day._

_“N-no, Veth,” He started, but as a follow-up escaped him, he simply laughed nervously at the ridiculousness of the situation. She looked confused, her freckled face wrinkly as she frowned at him. Her nose flared and she let out a little huff of frustration. Yeza’s heart filled with joy. He leaned forward and kissed her._

_The last rays of sunlight gave her brown hair a red glow when he opened his eyes again._

_“I love you, too.” He whispered, and he could see the corners of Veth’s mouth curl up. She slowly touched her lips with her fingertips, and then looked at her hand in wonderment as she pulled it away._

_Then she hit him on the shoulder with the flat of her hand._

_“You really made me nervous there for a second!” She cried out, but then laughed. Yeza ducked out of the way, a smile threatened to split his face in two._

_“It’s because you surprised me.” He said, and she fell into his arms as they both settled back down into the grass. “I… I didn’t dare hope.”_

_“You idiot.” She muttered into his chest. He could hear the crickets start softly over the sound of the meandering water, and he felt like he could die happy right then and there._

-

He could hear the water, the rushing river. He was close. Home.

His legs were cold and lifeless, mechanical, automated. He broke through the trees, and there was Felderwin. There was no emotion, just a goal.

He slipped and slid across the stones on the river bank and splashed into the water, no time to head around for the bridge. No time for anything.  
He waded forward, the icy coldness gripped at his legs and dulled the pain. Luc had started crying quite a while ago, his little voice shrill with panic, but now just a background noise to Yeza. He looked at the lantern lights across the river and continued.

The water wasn’t as deep this time of year.

There were voices now. A brief panic rose in his chest, his mind conjuring up images of moving shadows and sharp blades and tricky crossbows and rows of teeth. But something told him those were not the same voices, and the panic dulled to a low thrum. He focused on the lights.

Luc was screaming. Someone yelled up on the river bank, and then strong arms were pulling him up out of the _water._

_“It’s Mr. Brenatto!”_

_“It’s Yeza!”_

There were people now, and someone was trying to lift Luc out of his arms, but Yeza grabbed onto his son with white-knuckled hands. The world was spinning, and somewhere close by someone was talking to him. He closed his eyes and hugged his son, muttering reassurances under his breath, an endless mantra.

 _We’re going home._  
_We’ll get there._  
_It’s all going to be fine._  
_Because we’re going home._

Had time passed? He didn’t know. He opened his eyes, and there were guards, and people, and a doctor, perhaps.

And then Edith. The older woman kneeled down in front of him, and carefully stroked his hair and then placed her hands on his hands, still holding Luc. And hers were warm, and his were not, and hers were comforting. And her eyes gave him a kind look.

“We need to take care of Luc now, Yeza. It’s okay.” She said, and he tried to focus on her words, and the kindness in her eyes. The kindness was important. “It’s okay. You’re home. You got here, you did good.”

And her hands were warm, so he let go of Luc.

She quickly wrapped his son up in a blanket and then stood up, appearing to say something to someone else, but Yeza couldn’t focus as he felt the weight of the night come rushing down on him.

He fell to his knees, his hands reaching for steady ground. His fingers pressed into the soft, muddy grass of the riverbank. He knew this place. 

He watched the water meander past as the early morning sun rose over the treetops on the other side, casting the sky in deep reds and oranges.   
It was a beautiful morning.

He cried.


End file.
